History Education News - Volume Two

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research, and news; search for lesson plans; and locate nearby history museums. Answer the new weekly History Quiz and enter to win a National History Education Clearinghouse flash drive. Ask a question of a historian or a master teacher or join in the conversation on what makes a quality lesson plan.
The National History Education Clearinghouse has plenty of valuable resources to help you navigate this busy back-to-school season and return to the classroom ready to engage and challenge your students.
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Issue 02 August 2008
National History Education Clearinghouse 4400 University Drive, MSN 1 E7 Fairfax, VA 22030 Toll Free: 866.539.8381 info@teachinghistory.org
It's that time again—a new year, new students, new ideas. A time for thinking about the suc- cesses of last year and the topics where you want to try something different. Visit the National History Education Clearinghouse for help with all of these things!
The second issue of History Education News highlights new features as well as topics that are especially relevant this fall, such as presi- dential campaigns, elections, and inaugurations from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first. Explore new content, teaching strategies,
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About The National History Education Clearinghouse (NHEC) is designed to help K-12 teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the class- room. NHEC is funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Innovation and Improvement's Teaching American History (TAH) program under contract number ED-07-CO-0088. It builds on and disseminates the valuable lessons learned by more than 800 TAH proj- ects designed to raise student achievement by improving teachers' knowledge and understanding of traditional U.S. history. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
(c.) 2008 Center for History and New Media
Created by the Center for History and New Media at George Mason University and the Stanford University History Education Group, in partnership with the American Historical Association and the National History Center.
Staff:
Sam Wineburg, Executive Producer and Senior Scholar Sharon Leon, Co-Director Daisy Martin, Co-Director Kelly Schrum, Co-Director
Teresa DeFlitch, Project Manager Lee Ann Ghajar, Project Manager Jane Heckley Kon, Project Coordinator Laura Veprek, Lead Web Designer Ammon Shepherd, Webmaster Jon Lesser, Lead Programmer Brenda Frink, Research Associate Brad Fogo, Research Associate Nikole Richardson, Research Associate Jack Schneider, Research Associate Eric Shed, Research Associate Luke Tarra, Research Associate Lara Harmon, Research Assistant
teachinghistory.org 0 Issue 02 I August 2008
News
First Lady Laura Bush presented the 2008 Preserve America Presidential Awards in a White House Ceremony on May 12. The winners are the African Burial Ground Project in New York City, the Corinth and Alcorn County Heritage Tourism Initiative, the Lower East Side Tenement Museum (featured on page 5), and the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program. Visit http://www.preserveamerica.gov/ for more information.
EDSITEment, a website of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), is spotlighting classroom materials related to the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) series, The Presidents. These lesson plans are directed towards grades 9-12, but incorporate materials that may be useful for younger students. Explore http://edsitement.neh.gov/ today.
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Lower East Side Tenement Museum, New York City
HISTORY CONTENT
Just in time for the fall 2008 election sea- son! Are you looking for materials that will help your students learn about presidential elections, past and present? Visit teaching history.org to search thousands of resources by time period, type of source, and/or keyword. History Content will help you quickly locate quality resources, including primary sources, websites, exhibits, and online history lectures.
Featured Website Reviews
I Do Solemnly Swear ... Presidential Inaugurations http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/pihtml/ pihome.html
From George Washington to George W. Bush, all presidents have at least one thing in common: presidential inaugurations. Discover resources from every presidential inauguration, including diaries and letters of presidents; handwritten drafts of inaugu-
ral addresses; broadsides; inaugural tick- ets; and photographs.
The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials, 1952-2004 http://livingroomcandidate.org/ Have you ever wondered what the first tel- evised presidential campaign commercials
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President-elect Woodrow Wilson with President William Howard Taft, Library of Congress. Prints and Photographs Division
looked like? Or how they changed in the past half century? Explore more than 250 commercials that appeared on American television sets and computers (beginning with those on TV in 1952) to sell presiden- tial candidates to the public. You can browse the advertisements by year and by candidate, as well as by type of commer- cial. Additional resources include essays on advertising strategies and eight lesson plans.
Public Papers of the Presidencyhttp://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/index.php
Bringing together a wide range of material on the public communications of American presidents, as well as election data and statistical information, this website pres- ents the public messages, statements, speeches, and news conference remarks of presidents from Herbert Hoover to George W. Bush. A media archive contains audio and video clips from the twentieth century.
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Thanksgiving from the perspectives of two children, a pilgrim girl and a Wampanoag boy. Students can examine an eyewitness account of the 1621 harvest celebration written by Plymouth colonist Edward Winslow in several ways—reading the original, using a magic lens to read the source in modern English, and listening to the letter being read. They can then ask questions, compare information with Wampanoag oral tradition, and see how a historian makes sense of these sources. An in-depth Teacher's Guide is available.
Online History Lectures
Are you looking for a quick review of how the Electoral College works? Or a deeper understanding of how the party system developed in America? Discover online audio and video lectures on history and history education from public historians, educators, authors, and university profes- sors through this searchable database.
Perfect for Younger Students!
You Are the Historian: Investigating the First Thanksgiving http://www.plimoth.org/education/olc/ index_js2.html
This interactive multimedia website gives students the opportunity to explore the first
Plimoth Plantation, Massachusetts
teachinghistory.org
Issue 02 I August 2008
Featured Online History Lectures The Electoral College in U.S. Presidential Elections: Logical Foundations, Mathematics, and Politics http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/472/ Scholar Alexander S. Belenky examines the presidential election process and the institution of the Electoral College, as defined in the U.S. Constitution, the appli- cation of this form, and the possible imbal- ances and stalemates that can result in elections due to this institution. He also suggests changes in the system that might guard against stalemates and imbalances.
Lincoln and American Party Politicshttp://lincoln.lib.niu.edu/video1.html
This lecture, created by the Abraham Lincoln Historical Digitization Project, fol- lows the progression of political events from the end of the eighteenth century to Abraham Lincoln's election as president. It pays special attention to the formation and dissolution of political parties and the rise of tensions between North and South.
History Content In Your Backyard
Need a break from election coverage? This fall, bring a museum into your classroom. Search Historic Sites and Museums to find local museums and historic sites for stan- dards-based outreach programs or virtual field trips. You can also explore national locations online! Search by topic, time peri- od, place type, state, and/or keyword.
Featured Resources
Conner Prairie Outreach and Distance Learning http://www.connerprairie.org/
Experience the thrill of Conner Prairie with- out leaving your school! A large living his- tory site in Indiana, Conner Prairie offers numerous educational resources in nine- teenth-century history, including outreach programs and virtual field trips for grades K-12. Topics range from Native American and pioneer life to the Underground Railroad and nineteenth-century schools and can be designed to fit your schedule. Enjoy a compelling program through inter- active videoconferencing or, if in the vicini- ty, schedule a visit from a museum educa- tor to bring history into your classroom.
The Lower East Side Tenement Museum Virtual Tour http://tenement.org/Virtual_Tour/index_virtual.html Visit this award-winning historic site in New
York City, New York, from the comfort of your classroom. Located on Manhattan's
Lower East Side, an immigrant portal for almost two centuries, 97 Orchard Street was home to an estimated 7,000 people from more than 20 nations between 1863 and 1935. Your students can take a virtual tour of the tenement and experience five different stories of immigrant families who lived in the building. In addition, a "ruin apartment" shows the building before it was restored.
Ask a Historian
"Did President Lincoln actually foretell his death to a reporter the day before he was killed?"
"Was corn served at the first Thanksgiving? If so, what kind?"
Find out the answers at teaching history.org!
Submit a question you have always wanted to ask or a question your students posed today in class.
5INational History Education Clearinghouse
Explore state-of-the-art practices and mul- timedia examples of classroom teaching and historical thinking. The content on teachinghistory.org draws on the latest historical scholarship and research into the teaching and learning of history.
Sourcing (v.) considering the source of a document and generating questions, before launching into the document's contents.
Using Primary Sources
Political cartoons, maps, letters, diaries, and objects ... all of these help us discover the past. But helping students learn to ana- lyze these sources can be a challenge. Visit the National History Education Clearing- house for tools that teach students how to read different kinds of primary sources. Watch historians in action as they talk about how to analyze historical sources.
teachinghistory.org 6 Issue 02 I August 2008
Featured Resources
Scholars in Action: Analyzing a Political Cartoon http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/sia/ cartoon.htm
How do historians interpret different kinds of historical evidence? This series of inter- views shows scholars "in action" as they analyze primary sources. In the years fol- lowing the Civil War, one of the many major debates of the day centered on money: should the currency of the United States be based on gold (the "gold standard") or on paper (known as "greenbacks")? The political cartoon, "Milk Tickets for Babies, in Place of Milk," created by Thomas Nast in 1876, comments with wit and humor on this issue. These debates about the nature of money, and the meaning of value itself, coincided with equally fundamental social and political debates about the nature of citizenship as it applied to the newly eman-
cipated slaves. Political cartoons were a major form of commentary in late nineteenth-century American life, and Thomas Nast (1840-1902) was the most famous cartoonist of his day.
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Examples of Historical Thinking
Over the past few years, researchers have made great strides in understanding how students learn history. On teaching history.org , you will find videos that show historians and students thinking out loud about primary sources and historical questions.
Featured Model
Seeing (and Engaging in) Historical Thinking: An Interactive Tutorial http://www.historicalinquiry.com/scim/ participation2/participation2.cfm
In this tutorial, viewers practice a strategy known as SCIM—Summarizing, Contextualizing, Inferring, and Monitoring— through analyzing a letter written by George Washington to a spy for the Continental Army. Historian Tom Ewing narrates this interactive tutorial and asks viewers questions requiring them to apply each strategy. After viewers select an answer, they are immediately given specific
feedback. Ewing explains right and wrong answers using highlighted passages from the document. This interactive video, drawn from Historical Inquiry: Scaffolding Wise Practices in the History Classroom, models historical reading and directly engages the viewer in the process.
Examples of Teaching
At teachinghistory.org , you can explore online examples of teachers in action and gain insight into the planning and thinking that went into creating these activities.
Causes of WWIhttp://www.teachers.tv/video/23938
This video shows a ninth-grade history class applying new knowledge about causal reasoning to the question of whether two bullets were, in fact, responsi- ble for the start of World War I. The instruc- tor builds on a previous lesson on historical causality to help his mixed-ability students rethink their previous understandings of the origins of WWI. The students draw visual diagrams of the causes of the war, use
new vocabulary to describe historical
change, and develop richer and more com- plex historical understandings.
Teaching with Textbooks
The Grammar of History Textbooks Part I: Getting Meaning Through Language Analysis Getting Meaning Through Language Analysis is a strategy that linguists Mary Schleppergrell and her colleagues devel- oped while working with middle school and high school history teachers and students. This technique works well for short text- book passages with important standards- related material. Students identify the grammatical elements of each sentence and see how the elements relate. In the process, they not only develop literacy skills but also notice the choices textbook authors make in presenting historical meaning.
Read more at teachinghistory.org.
7I National History Education Clearinghouse
Reviewed Lesson Plans
Explore reviewed lesson plans! Classroom teachers have reviewed and critiqued these lesson plans according to the National History Education Clearinghouse rubric with categories focused on analytic think- ing, lesson structure, and scaffolding. Comment on the lessons and reviews to join in the conversation about what makes selected plans and activities "classroom worthy."
Primary source (n.) Primary sources are materials directly related to a topic by time or participation. These materials include letters, speeches, diaries, newspa-per articles, oral history interviews, docu- ments, photographs, artifacts, or anything else that provides first-hand accounts about a person or event.
(Definition from the National History Day website at http://www.nhd.org/contestfaqs.htm.)
teachinghistory.org 8 Issue 02 I August 2008
Featured Lesson Plans
Lewis and Clark: Same Place, Different Perspectives http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ xpeditions/lessons/06/g35/sameplace.html Elementary
In small groups, students analyze short
excerpts from primary and secondary sources that describe an encounter between the Lewis and Clark expedition and a Native American tribe. They share their analysis with the class and consider how varied locations influenced the ways in which the explorers and the various native tribes interacted.
HISTORY
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History of the Expedition under the command of Captains Lewis and Clark, Library of Congress
Constitution Day, September 17
Visit teachinghistory.org for resources for learning about the U.S. Constitution and its role in history.
Weekly History Quiz
Can you solve this Presidential Sudoku puzzle? Connect textbook passages with their year of publi- cation? Identify the correct decade for advertisements spanning more than a century? Visit teaching history.org regularly to solve the new weekly History Quiz and enter to win a National History Education
Clearinghouse
flash drive!
Rosa Parks being fingerprinted, Montgomery, Alabama (Library of Congress, Number LC-USZ62-109643)
Opening Up the Textbook: Rosa Parkshttp://historicalthinkingmatters.org/ rosaparks/1 /materials/textbook/
High School
Using a textbook passage and two primary sources, this lesson engages students in using historical evidence in order to cri- tique a textbook passage. In this way, it also allows teachers to introduce the text- book as one source among many, rather than the final word on historical events.
Ask a Master Teacher
"Lectures and documents: How do I teach with both?"
"I want to have my students analyze primary sources, but too often, the language is a barrier. For example, James Otis' speech on the Writs of Assistance is too hard for eighth-grade students to understand. How can I use these types of primary sources without having to break the whole docu- ment down for them?"
Read answers to these questions or submit your own question today! Experienced classroom teachers are on hand to help think through teaching history and learn- ing strategies.
9 National History Education Clearinghouse
ISSUES AND RESEARCH
Stay up to date with current issues and research that affect history education. Visit teachinghistory.org to share your ideas with history educators nationwide.
Special Topic Analysis
How are states assessing student under- standing of history? Each year, in partner- ship with the National History Center, the Clearinghouse will prepare an in-depth study of one topic of special interest to the history education community. In 2008, we will examine current models and practices for assessing historical under- standing in the schools, looking specifi- cally at California, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, New York, and Virginia.
teachinghistory.org
Issue 02 I August 2008 10
Annual Report on the State of U.S. History Education
There is enormous variation in how states organize, frame, detail, and use require- ments and recommendations for teaching and learning U.S. history. However, from this variety emerges a story of increased attention paid to history education over the past two decades, including U.S. his- tory education.
Created by the National History Education Clearinghouse, this report examines the state of U.S. history education primarily at the state level. In this first in a series of annual reports, we focus on state stan- dards, assessments, and teacher subject- matter requirements. We also look at sig- nificant educational programs that cross state boundaries.
Read more at teachinghistory.org.
High school students analyzing a nineteenth-century speech.
Research Briefs
Learning to Think Historically: Columbus, Exploration, and the Idea of the Flat Earth As part of The National Research Council's How People Learn series, Bob Bain (now a professor of History Education at the University of Michigan's School of Education) described a classroom in which historical questions were central to the cur- riculum. Through this particular investiga- tion, Bain's students learned about fif- teenth-century Europe. Columbus's voy- age, and the nature of history and historical accounts.
Rather than presenting a story of Columbus's journey to his students, Bain first elicited student ideas about the voy- age and its context. "What do you know about Columbus sailing the ocean blue in 1492? What do you know about the people of Europe on the eve of Columbus's voy- ages?" After hearing students recall the standard flat-earth story about Columbus, Bain asked them how they knew what they
Columbus, Exploration, and the Idea of the Flat Earth
supposedly knew. What evidence did they have for their Columbus stories?
Read more at teachinghistory.org.
Tell Us What You Think
We are grateful to our users who have shared with us what they think about teachinghistory.org and History Education News!
The National History Education Clearinghouse is a new resource. We want to know what we can do to make the site more useful to you. Please take a moment and let us know what you think of the newsletter and the website at teachinghistory.org. Use the feed- back form on the site, email com- ments to info@teachinghistory.org, or call us at 1-866-539-8381. We appreciate your time and thank you for all that you do for history education!
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National History Education Clearinghouse
TEACHING AMERICAN HISTORY GRANTS
What Is the Teaching American History Grant Program?
Teaching American History (TAH) is a dis- cretionary grant program funded under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Its goal is to support programs that raise student achievement by improving teach- ers' knowledge, understanding, and appre- ciation of American history. To date, the TAH program has funded over 800 projects nationwide. At teachinghistory.org you can explore resources related to TAH grants, learn from current and past projects, and plan for future grant applications.
TAH Grants Database
Explore the TAH database to find project abstracts, award amounts, contact infor- mation, and partners. Quickly find projects in your state or ones that focus on specific
teachinghistory.org
Issue 02 I August 2008
content areas, teaching strategies, or grade levels.
Lessons Learned
Lesson Learned features essays from directors, project partners, and participat- ing teachers reflecting on their grant expe- riences. Topics include recruitment, sus- tainability, partnerships, effective work- shops, and teacher needs. Read these essays and more on teachinghistory.org .
From K-12 Outreach to K-16 Collaboration
"Fifteen years ago, when I first began working with K-12 history teachers, the standard term used to characterize such activity was K-12 outreach. As a partici- pant in the History Project at UC Davis— one of the nineteen subject-matter sites established by the California History-Social Science Project—I believed that what I had
to offer K-12 teachers was my scholarly expertise. I would lecture to the teachers— treating them essentially as returning col- lege students—on historiographic develop- ments, and they would (I thought) return to their classrooms enriched by what I had to tell them. ... Fortunately, I was surrounded by people—not just Roland Marchand, but a talented corps of K-12 teacher-leaders in Northern California—with a more sophisti- cated, and far more promising, under- standing of our work."
-Karen Halttunen (California)
Teaching American History Through Biography: Lessons from Maine Educators "This summer, for the third consecutive year, I will have the great privilege of work- ing with nearly 100 Maine teachers in grades 5-12 in a program entitled `Teaching American History Through Biography.' Each summer, this workshop
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offers participants opportunities to strengthen their ability to teach American history through study and research on notable Americans. ... We have studied figures as diverse as Tituba, the Afro-Indian woman accused of sparking the Salem witchcraft trials of the late 1600s, to Andrew Carnegie, the famous nineteenth-
century industrialist and philanthropist. We have explored the nature of biography as a genre of literature and as a means of understanding broader patterns in history." -Patrick Rael (Maine)
Project Spotlight
Multimedia Teaching Resources: New Jersey History Partnership http://www.njhistorypartnership.org/home_page.html It is November 1776 and you are General George Washington. You are outnumbered and do not know where the British army will strike next. Should you evacuate Fort Washington and Fort Lee, fight to defend these locations, or leave the decision to the area commander? What would you do? This is the kind of question asked by an interactive exercise created by the New Jersey History Partnership TAH grant as part of a larger multimedia website designed to teach U.S. history through New Jersey history. -The New Jersey History Partnership
Bringing History Homehttp://www.bringinghistoryhome.org/
Bringinghistoryhome.org builds lesson plans on the analogy that students, like carpenters, need to learn to use tools of the trade. In the case of the study of histo- ry, these tools are historical narratives, timelines, written and visual primary sources, maps, and historical narrative. Curricular units within each grade level and throughout the progression of grade levels, K-12, introduce increased levels of sophis- tication into the use and application of the tools of historical thinking. Sequential development of knowledge and of learning processes is a primary focus, and lesson plans review content from earlier grade lev- els, reminding teachers and students of what has gone before.
-University of Iowa, Washington Community School District
Stay Tuned
Information on the 2009 TAH program is coming soon! Visit http://www.ed. gov/programs/teachinghistory/index . html for more information.
13National History Education Clearinghouse
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Experience one of many workshops, dis- tance learning courses, and conferences offered to educators throughout the year. At teachinghistory.org you can search for events, professional organizations, and fellowships nationally or next door.
Online Courses
Sleuthing with Mapshttp://memory.loc.gov/learn/educators/video/index.html
Staff at the Library of Congress lead a two-hour interactive workshop for schools on the educational uses of maps. In this course, teachers receive guided practice in analyzing pre-selected maps and learn how maps can contribute to historical understanding. The program is free; con- tact the Library of Congress for details.
Workshops and Lectures
Special Announcement!
American Historical Association: National History Education Clearinghouse Workshop Saturday, January 3, 2009
A history education workshop for K-12 teachers! Join us at the American Historical Association Annual Meeting in New York City for an exciting day of activities on American history and history education. A small fee covers registration for the entire conference and lunch on Saturday.
Sessions include a discussion on teaching colonial and revolutionary history moderat- ed by Professor Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (Harvard University), a workshop on teach- ing black freedom struggles from World War II to the 1960s, and a presentation by Dr. Allida Black, Project Director of the
Eleanor Roosevelt Papers. A special lunchtime talk by Professor Sam Wineburg (Stanford University) will focus on Inverting Bloom's Taxonomy: What's Basic When Reading History?
Log on to the NHEC website for more details, or visit the American Historical Association website at http://www. historians.org .
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Issue 02 I August 2008
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Conferences
National Council for History Education Conference Revolutions in History March 12-14, 2009
Boston, MA
New ideas, individuals that made a differ- ence, and context have converged to pro- duce revolutions. Do they lead to progress or regression? Promote optimism and faith in the future or nostalgia and reaction in favor of the past? Produce unintended as well as intended consequences? Reward some at the expense of others? Explore these and other interesting topics at the National Council for History Education conference next spring. Plan to attend
or submit a proposal. Proposal deadline is September 1, 2008. Visit http:// www.nche.net/conference/index.html for more information.
Grants and Fellowships
All educators deserve recognition for their dedication and hard work. There are numerous awards that honor the work of history teachers nationwide. Explore these and many others at teachinghistory.org.
Travel Grants for Jefferson-related Projects http://www.monticello.org/research/ fellowships/travelgrants.html
Awards fund travel for "scholars and teach- ers wishing to make short-term visits to Monticello to pursue research or educa- tional projects related to Jefferson." Grants are made twice yearly; application dead- lines are April 1 and November 1.
History Teacher of the Year Award http://www.gilderlehrman.org/teachers/student8.html
The History Teacher of the Year Award, established by Preserve America, recog- nizes outstanding American history teach- ers and the crucial importance of American history education. Winners are selected
from each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, Department of Defense schools, and U.S. Territories. These winners become finalists for the National History Teacher of the Year Award. Each state win- ner receives $1,000 and an archive of books and educational resources for his
or her school's library. Deadlines vary by state.
Fourth-grade students studying Massive Resistance in Virginia.
National History 1 5 1 Education Clearinghouse
NATIONAL
HISTORY EDUCATION
CLEARINGHOUSE
Center for History and New Media
George Mason University 4400 University Drive, MSN 1 E7 Fairfax, VA 22030
NONPROFIT ORG US POSTAGE PAID PERMIT NO. 1532 FAIRFAX. VA 22030

The content of this website does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of Education nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.